Top 135 Quotes & Sayings by Pat Summitt

I was like, 'I don't know if I could be an Olympian...' But my dad really influenced me to stay and be in the Olympics.

Most people get excited about games, but I've got to be excited about practice, because that's my classroom.

I think that a lot of people would perceive my style as being intimidating. And although I don't want to intimidate kids, I am very demanding.

In my case, symptoms began to appear when I was only 57. In fact, the doctors believe early-onset Alzheimer's has a strong genetic predictor, and that it may have been progressing for some years before I was diagnosed.

We keep score in life because it matters. It counts. It matters. Too many people opt out and never discover their own abilities because they fear failure. They don't understand commitment.

Have you ever walked along a shoreline, only to have your footprints washed away? That's what Alzheimer's is like. The waves erase the marks we leave behind, all the sand castles. Some days are better than others.

I remember standing on a medal podium at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, imbued with a sense that if you won enough basketball games, there was no such thing as poor, backward, country, female, or inferior.

I don't want to sit around the house. I want to be out there. I want to go to practice. I want to be in the huddles. That's me.

I can remember trying to coach, trying to figure out schemes, and it just wasn't coming to me.

I've got a great staff and great support system, and I'm going to stick my neck out and do what I always do.

Sometimes I draw blanks.

I think I can help others just by my example.

Sometimes I'm more stubborn than I am smart.

Competition got me off the farm and trained me to seek out challenges and to endure setbacks; and in combination with my faith, it sustains me now in my fight with Alzheimer's disease.

Coaching is the great passion of my life, and the job to me has always been an opportunity to work with our student athletes and help them discover what they want.

I remember teaching a clinic to other coaches, and a guy raised his hand and asked if I had any advice when it came to coaching women. I leveled him with a death-ray stare, and said, 'Go home and coach basketball.'

Class is more important than a game.

When you learn to keep fighting in the face of potential failure, it gives you a larger skill set to do what you want to do in life. It gives you vision. But you can't acquire it if you're afraid of keeping score.

When you grow up on a dairy farm, cows don't take a day off. So you work every day and my dad always said, 'No one can outwork you.'

Winning is fun... Sure. But winning is not the point. Wanting to win is the point. Not giving up is the point. Never letting up is the point. Never being satisfied with what you've done is the point.

I'd wake up in the morning and I would think, 'Where am I?' I'd have to gather myself.

The game is never over. No matter what the scoreboard reads or what the referee says, it doesn't end when you come off the court.

I hate to sound this way but, 'Why me? Why me with dementia?'

I'm not a good loser. I get sick physically... I take it to heart. I hate it.

I lost my confidence.

You're wondering what a bale of hay has to do with success. Well, there's a trick to loading hay. You have to use your knee. What you do is, you put your right knee behind it and half kick it up in the air. That way you get some lift on it. ... My point is, there are certain ways to make a hard job easier.

My parents taught me a long time ago that you win in life with people, and that's important, because if you hang with winners, you stand a great chance of being a winner.

No one feels strong when she examines her own weakness. But in facing weakness, you learn how much there is in you, and you find real strength.

She taught me that it's ok to let down your guard and allow your players to get to know you. They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

To me, teamwork is a lot like being part of a family. It comes with obligations, entanglements, headaches, and quarrels. But the rewards are worth the cost.

The absolute heart of loyalty is to value those people who tell you the truth, not just those people who tell you what you want to hear. In fact, you should value them most. Because they have paid you the compliment of leveling with you and assuming you can handle it.

Success is a project that's always under construction.

I remember every player-every single one-who wore the Tennessee orange, a shade that our rivals hate, a bold, aggravating color that you can usually find on a roadside crew, "or in a correctional institution," as my friend Wendy Larry jokes. But to us the color is a flag of pride, because it identifies us as Lady Vols and therefore as women of an unmistakable type. Fighters. I remember how many of them fought for a better life for themselves. I just met them halfway.

There is an old saying: a champion is someone who is willing to be uncomfortable.

By doing things when you are too tired, by pushing yourself farther than you thought you could - like running the track after a two-hour practice - you become a competitor. Each time you go beyond your perceived limit, you become mentally stronger.

Admit to and make yourself accountable for mistakes. How can you improve if you're never wrong?

There is always someone better than you. Whatever it is that you do for a living, chances are, you will run into a situation in which you are not as talented as the person next to you. That's when being a competitor can make a difference in your fortunes.

Anyone can quit, but it takes a strong, committed person not to quit when times are tough.

I won 1,098 games, and eight national championships, and coached in four different decades. But what I see are not the numbers. I see their faces.

It is what it is. But, it will be what you make it.

You can't always be the most talented person in the room. But you can be the most competitive

Accountability is essential to personal growth, as well as team growth. How can you improve if you're never wrong? If you don't admit a mistake and take responsibility for it, you're bound to make the same one again.

Change equals self improvement. Push yourself to places you haven't been before.

Offense sells tickets, defense wins games, rebounding wins championships.

Teamwork is what makes common people capable of uncommon results.

Responsibility equals accountability equals ownership. And a sense of ownership is the most powerful weapon a team or organization can have.

If you don't want responsibility, don't sit in the big chair. To be successful, you must accept full responsibility

Teamwork is really a form of trust. It's what happens when you surrender the mistaken idea that you can go it alone and realize that you won't achieve your individual goals without the support of your colleagues.

In the absence of feedback, people will fill in the blanks with a negative. They will assume you don’t care about them or don’t like them.

Individual success is a myth. No one succeeds all by herself.

Here's how I'm going to beat you. I'm going to outwork you. That's it. That's all there is to it.

Attitude lies somewhere between emotion and logic. It's that curious mix of optimism and determination that enables you to maintain a positive outlook and to continue plodding in the face of the most adverse circumstances.

Attitude is a choice. Think positive thoughts daily. Believe in yourself.

The willingness to experiment with change may be the most essential ingredient to success at anything.

When you choose to be a competitor you choose to be a survivor. When you choose to compete, you make the conscious decision to find out what your real limits are, not just what you think they are.

Discipline yourself, so no one else has to.

If I'm not leading by example, then I'm not doing the right thing. And I want to always do the right thing.

God doesn’t take things away to be cruel. He takes things away to make room for other things. He takes things away to lighten us. He takes things away so we can fly.

Discipline helps you finish a job, and finishing is what separates excellent work from average work.

Attitude is a choice. What you think you can do, whether positive or negative, confident or scared, will most likely happen.